The Best (And Worst) Star Trek Movies of All Time

#4. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The Enterprise is sent to pick up the Klingon chancellor, who despite
being leader of the Klingon race, is somehow unable to bum a ride off
anybody. His luck gets considerably worse when he' assassinated-Kirk
and McCoy are blamed and sent to an icy Klingon gulag, which is the worst
kind. They are told that no one has ever escaped from this penal colony,
then promptly escape with little difficulty. Everybody heads to the peace
conference, where they save the Federation President from assassination
and expose the bad guys' evil schemes.

Why You Should See ItThe Undiscovered Country has all the high-flown Shakespearean
references of The Wrath of Khan, but it' less of an action
flick and more of a smart, gripping political thriller, making it awesome
in a completely different way. Also-and this is enjoyable for the wrong
reasons-Spock coldly mind-rapes Kim Cattrall' traitorous character
by mind-melding with her against her will. Spock explains that with the
way she was dressed in that white headband, she was asking for it.

Why You Shouldn't
The scene where Kirk faces off against the beautiful shapeshifter who
has taken his form ("I can't believe I kissed you," he groans;
"Must have been your lifelong ambition," she answers) is a
welcome bit of ego-deflating self-parody on the part of William Shatner,
but it' still Shatner, which means it's hammy and poorly acted.
Besides, they'd already pulled out the old "Kirk' evil
doppelganger" routine enough times on the old series that it comes
off a little cliché here.

Impact on the FranchiseAfter
three seasons of the original series and five movies, Sulu finally gets
not only a ship of his own, but also a first name. Look at him drinking
a cup of tea on his own bridge there, all smug and satisfied. Too bad
he'd never show up in a movie again, as this was the last outing
for the original crew in its entirety. On the other hand, he's doing pretty
well with Heroes these days, so maybe everything worked out for
the best.

Celebrity Cameos?Iman and Kim Cattrall bring the heat
as sexy aliens, and watch for a small cameo from Christian Slater
as a night-duty officer who wakes up a cranky Sulu. Also, under all that
makeup, the President of the United Federation of Planets is played by
none other than Red Forman from That '70s Show. (For
extra fun, follow each of his lines with a sardonic "dumbass!"
For example: "Let us redefine progress to mean that just because
we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing,
dumbass!")

#5. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Kirk steals the Enterprise to retrieve Spock' corpse from the
planet they'd shot it at from a ship's cannon in Star Trek II
(they might want to start checking pulses before they keep doing that).
Conveniently, the planet is being terraformed due to the explosion of
the Genesis Device. Also conveniently, said Genesis Device resurrects
Spock. Less conveniently, everybody's taken prisoner by a Klingon commander,
who a pissed-off Kirk conveniently drops into a bottomless pit.

Why You Should See It
The second, third, and fourth Trek films function as an unofficial
trilogy, so the two excellent films on either side pull The Search
for Spock up toward their level, and it thus rises above the infamous
curse of terrible odd-numbered Trek films. Plus, as the reborn
Spock rapidly matures and endures the excruciating Vulcan mating urge,
Saavik makes the calculated logical decision to let him bone her. Hot
Vulcan sex!

Why You Shouldn'tThe
special effects and fight choreography in the final fight scene are embarrassingly
low-budget. Shatner chews the scenery anyway, which happens to consist
of the cheap, unconvincing Styrofoam rocks often featured in the old episodes
from the '60s. (Also, you can sort of even see the bottom of the bottomless
pit.)

Impact on the Franchise
The reset button gets hammered here. Once Spock comes back to life, it'
like his death never happened. On the bright side, Captain Kirk'
son gets killed off, so we're invited to pretend he never happened either.

Celebrity Cameos?Robin
Curtis replaces Kirstie Alley as Saavik. As for the ruthless
Klingon foes, the casting is frankly baffling. Night Court'
John Larroquette plays the first officer, and Christopher
Lloyd is the captain. It' hard to get past that one. Every
time he demands the secret of the Genesis Device, you sort of want to
explain that it' a simple matter of channeling 1.21 jiggawatts
[sic] through the flux capacitor.